Health system owes $300,000; county, schools still haggle
By Dave Breitenstein
dbreitenstein@news-press.com
Originally posted on November 04, 2006
Lee Memorial Health System must return $300,000 to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the feds reneged on an agreement to pay some hurricane expenses, a hospital official said Friday.
FEMA is conducting routine audits of local governmental agencies that received post-hurricane relief, primarily claims from Hurricane Charley in August 2004.
The Lee County School District and Lee County government confirmed Friday that they're still haggling with FEMA. Discussions about who pays for what — and how much — are expected to continue until at least 2010.
Lee Memorial's issue is this: it rented $300,000 worth of backup generators to cope with Charley's power outages.
Instead of immediately sending back the generators, hospital administrators held onto them through hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, which threatened Southwest Florida within weeks of one another.
Hospital finance director Mike German said health-system directors didn't want to risk sending back the generators and losing the chance to rent them again if another storm washed ashore.
"At first FEMA said it sounded reasonable, and then they came back and said, 'No, we're not going to pay for it,'" German said.
It's unclear at this point how local entities will repay FEMA, officials said.
FEMA spokesman Josh Wilson said the agency audits all payments once the dust settles after hurricanes.
"Following a disaster, the agency wants to get money into the hands of public entities quickly so that the rebuilding process can begin right away," Wilson said.
If initial estimates are too high or projects are later deemed ineligible, Wilson said, FEMA will ask for the money back.
If the agency didn't pay enough, FEMA would issue another check to cover expenses, said school district auditor Robert Brown.
Every public school in Lee reported at least some damage from Charley, and repairs have been financed through a combination of FEMA funds, insurance dollars and district money.
But problems have since developed at some schools.
Trafalgar Middle sprang leaks after Charley, and FEMA supplied cash to patch the roof.
Principal Angela Pruitt said those patches simply shifted the leaks to other spots, and rain water gushed into the building during heavy rains. Last week, the school district asked for bids to install new roofs on three of Trafalgar's nine buildings.
"FEMA didn't give us money for a whole new roof, yet it needs one," Brown said. "A roof consultant said the whole roof shifted."
Lee County government has tracked hundreds of storm-related projects, and Lee County grants analyst Roger Good said projects won't be closed out until at least 2010.
One of them, for example, is the $8.1 million Bonita Beach renourishment project, an extensive undertaking that won't commence for four years.
It often takes a long time for larger local governments to agree with FEMA on payments and reimbursements because severe storms affect so many facets of operations — roads, parks, utilities and facilities, to name a few.
Lee County still hasn't wrapped up matters with FEMA from when Tropical Storm Gabriel swirled by the area in September 2001.
"As far as the final numbers where FEMA gives us more money or us having to give some back to FEMA, we won't know that for a long time," Good said.
The city of Cape Coral hasn't begun its final audit with FEMA, spokeswoman Connie Barron said.
"They have three years to come back and cross-check invoices to ensure that what they paid for was actually done," Barron said. "Sometimes FEMA gets money returned, and sometimes the municipalities get additional funds."
Lee Memorial spent roughly $2.7 million on Charley-related expenses. FEMA agreed to pay $1.1 million before it decided against paying the $300,000 for generators.
Lee Memorial has absorbed other hurricane expenditures, too. FEMA opted not to reimburse the system for $153,000 it spent to take down a crane at part of HealthPark Medical Center that was under construction when Hurricane Ivan passed by.
German said that measure was a safety precaution because patients were in a nearby building.
At some point, Lee Memorial executives will have to cut the federal government a check.
Wilson said FEMA has an appeals procedure if governments believe the federal agency is responsible for a particular expenditure.
Lee County government already is looking at the appeals process.
FEMA didn't provide reimbursement for cleaning up debris on private roads for Charley, but that expense was covered after Hurricane Wilma made landfall in October 2005.
Good said if that reimbursement were available for Charley, Lee could collect several million dollars.
— Staff writers Jennifer Booth Reed, Jamie Page and Don Ruane contributed to this story.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20061104/NEWS01/611040476/1075
Disgusting bureaucracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No wonder they blunder timley emergency response..